Clearing up Color Blindness

A demonstration of peace and color braveness in Charlotte, NC

In this moment, I cannot remember a situation or event during which I felt invisible. Melody Hobson, a successful chairwoman and president of a financial firm and only one of two black women chairpersons of publicly traded companies, made me think about visibility in terms of privilege and how much harder black people and other minorities have to work sometimes to be seen and/or heard. In light of super recent events in Charlotte, NC this TEDtalk came into my queue at a perfect time to be reminded of disparities in advantage and voice between groups of people. The incidence involving Hobson and her friend attending an editorial luncheon and being directed to an area under assumption of being kitchen help on the prejudice of their skin color is bizarre. In walks a wealthy black women dressed to the nines accompanied by a similarly dressed black male and they are supposed to be wearing something other than what they have on and in a different role than guests according to the perspective of white privilege. Hobson, having a thick shell recalls her mother asking of her upon return from an all white birthday party how the other kids treated her. My parents, in my own experience, would have never asked that as a question unless I seemed emotionally distressed. It should not still exist that minorities are treated without the same "privilege". Her argument of 70% of corporation board seats composed of white men is more fuel for the argument of an entire culture of blindness. The allusion to her words resonating with admissions officers or hiring professors really made me more interested in her Talk because of my internship.